|

Nintendo board takes pay cut following poor results

While Nintendo does have the best-selling console in the US with the 3DS, all's not well. The company today issued its financial results for the first nine months of this fiscal year, showing profits are down 30% from the same period last year. In an act of contrition, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is halving his pay for the next five months.

While Nintendo does have the best-selling console in the US with the 3DS, all's not well. The company today issued its financial results for the first nine months of this fiscal year, showing profits are down 30% from the same period last year. In an act of contrition, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is halving his pay for the next five months.

Other board members will take paycuts of 20-30%, AFP reports. Asked whether the cuts might extend beyond June, Iwata responded, "I will make a decision after looking at the management situation at that time."

From April 2013 to the end of December, Nintendo made a profit of ¥101,95,000,00 (about $100 million), down 29.9% from this period in 2012. It explained in today's filing [PDF] that the Wii U hardware "still has a negative impact on Nintendo's profits owing mainly to its markdown in the United States and Europe, and sales of software, which has high profit margins, did not grow sufficiently."

Nintendo sold 15.96 million Wii U games in the nine-month period. Lifetime Wii U console sales by the end of the period were 5.86 million, so the attach rate is pretty low.

The company expects a less-than-great year for the Wii U. A few weeks ago, it drastic revised its console sales estimates for the year, cutting the Wii U's predicted sales from 9 million consoles to only 2.8 million.

Nintendo's considering a new business structure to help turn things around.